this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025

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175

Do you encrypt your drives and why or why not? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 6 months ago by monovergent@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

235 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was recently intrigued to learn that only half of the respondents to a survey said that they used disk encryption. Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows have been increasingly using encryption by default. On the other hand, while most Linux installers I've encountered include the option to encrypt, it is not selected by default.

Whether it's a test bench, beater laptop, NAS, or daily driver, I encrypt for peace of mind. Whatever I end up doing on my machines, I can be pretty confident my data won't end up in the wrong hands if the drive is stolen or lost and can be erased by simply overwriting the LUKS header. Recovering from an unbootable state or copying files out from an encrypted boot drive only takes a couple more commands compared to an unencrypted setup.

But that's just me and I'm curious to hear what other reasons to encrypt or not to encrypt are out there.

(page 5) 38 comments

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[–] SitD@lemy.lol 1 points 5 months ago (5 children)

are you guys using the bios ssd encryption option or a software solution?

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[–] bier@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 months ago

I made the mistake of not setting up encryption on my main 45TB zfs pool so I'm currently backing up everything on there to tape so I can recreate the pool (also need to change from mirrored to raidz) and then copying everything back to the drives. Although writing and reading each are around 6 days continuesly. Didn't want to bite the bullet and pay more then I absolutely had to and only got a LTO-4 drive and tapes.

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago (18 children)

Absolutely. LUKS full disk encryption. Comes as an opt-in checkbox on Ubuntu, for example.

And I too cannot understand why this is not opt-out rather than opt-in. Apparently we've decided that only normies on corporate spyware OSs need security, and we don't.

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[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago (4 children)

No need as none of them are networked

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[–] obsolete@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

No. I prefer the quickest way to share my data between different computers and operating systems on my home network. I will also mention that my network is not accessible over the internet.

[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Speaking as someone who doesn't encrypt their desktop but is thinking about it:

you can't share (readable) data over one's home network if the sending PC is disk-encrypted?

For example, are you saying that if I send a video file from my PC, which is disk-encrypted, over LAN to my NAS, then the NAS would not be able to read said file?

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[–] loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I was recently intrigued to learn that only half of the respondents to a survey said that they used NO disk encryption.

Is the other half alright?

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org -1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Because it requires generating, memorizing and entering a secure password. Because Linux typically doesn't support fingerprint readers or other biometrics.

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